**1. Introduction**

Actions for a noticeable increase in crop yields and food production over the last century have involved the use of pesticides and agrochemicals [1]. These chemical pesticides are used to provide protection to crops against weeds, fungi, insects, and other pests. Consequently, these chemical pesticides are potentially lethal to human and can exert both acute and chronic health effects, depending on the amount and the route of exposure.

World Health Organization reported that there are more than 1000 pesticides used around the world to ensure food is not damaged or destroyed by pests and each of these pesticides has different properties and toxicological effects. The cheaper and older and most likely the off-patent chemical pesticides, such as lindane and dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) tend to remain for years in soil and water. Due to this, some of these chemicals have been banned by countries that signed the Stockholm Convention of 2001—an international treaty that aims to eliminate or restrict the production and use of persistent organic pollutants.

The Stockholm Convention on the production and use of persistent organic pollutants mandates that each Party shall Prohibit, restrict and/or take the (i) legal and administrative measures necessary to eliminate the production and use of + chemicals as listed in the treaty; and (ii) it imports and export of the persistent chemicals as listed in the treaty and (b) it is the production and use of the chemicals as listed in the treaty. It also emphasized that each Party shall take measures to ensure that any chemical listed in the treaty is imported only for


Notwithstanding, the high increasing human population and the need for farmers to guarantee good value for farming has further expressed the need for enhanced agricultural yield towards achieving increased food production. This need is provoked by the intensive damage to agro-products caused by pest attacks and diseases triggered by viruses, fungi, and bacteria. These pest attacks and diseases are also seriously affecting crop yield. It is based on this provocation that the increasing use of chemical pesticides has to be the case. However, [2] report identified that agrochemical residues did spread in the environment and food causing significant contamination of terrestrial ecosystems and poisoning human foods.

Alternatives to the intensive use of crop protection chemicals achieved through a science-based process that promotes efficient food production, enhances food safety, and guarantees environmental protection, are thus the necessary direction in reducing or eliminating the increasing use of chemical pesticides in agriculture, thus ensuring food safety.

#### **2. The use of chemical pesticides in food production**

Chemical pesticides in agriculture usually referred to as agricultural chemicals cover a wide range of compounds including insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, rodenticides, nematicides, and others [3]. After the banning of some of these chemicals for use in agriculture by most technologically advanced countries in the 1960s, organophosphates insecticides, carbamates, pyrethroids, herbicides, and fungicides were introduced between 1970 and 1980 [3]. These chemicals are said to have contributed immensely to agricultural pest control and agricultural output.

The benefits of these chemical pesticides cannot be overemphasized as the consequences of their effects lead to the advantages anticipated from their use. In re-emphasizing the benefits of these chemical pesticides in food production, it is important to note that without crop protection, including pesticides, more than half of the world's crops would be lost to insects, diseases, and weeds.

It is of importance to highlight that in the absence of pesticides, food production would be on the decrease, and increased cultivated farm areas would be necessary to produce the same amount of food, consequently impacting the wildlife habitat. The recurrent cultivation of the farm would be increase soil loss due to erosion, too. The other effects will include the decrease in agricultural production, rise in food prices, competitiveness for farmers in global markets would be less, and decrease in exports would drop, leading to many job losses.

Regardless of the benefits of pesticides, they can be harmful or hazardous to both humans and the environment. Innumerable chemicals are environmentally stable, toxic, and disposed to bioaccumulation. In some cases, pesticides can

#### *Chemical Pesticides and Food Safety DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.102395*

persevere in the environment and remain there for years. Contamination of the environment or increased occupational use can expose the general population to pesticides residues, including physical and biological degradation products present in the air, water, and food.
